Steilas considers out of place the effort of the Rectorate of the UPV/EHU to prevent the participation of a person through a communication at the congress on Sovereignty(s) held recently in our university. We do not understand the attempt to obstruct the academic activity of a person with all his personal and civil rights, except for the lies and pressure exerted by certain media in relation to this fact. We are also surprised, because so far the Rectorate of the UPV/EHU has acted backwards in the face of similar events, defending the character of the university as a forum for debate and meeting different ideas. On the contrary, on this occasion, the Rectorado has leaned towards media pressure.
We do not understand the efforts of the Rectorate of the UPV/EHU to obstruct the academic activity of a person with all his personal and civil rights.
For this purpose, it has used as an excuse the Code of Ethics recently approved by the university itself. At Steilas we believe that this Code of Ethics cannot go against the principle of being an impeller of the critical and creative spirit that is at the heart of the nature of the university. Little will benefit our society if, instead of fostering the open debate it needs, it assumes criteria of censorship and chancellery. The UPV Code of Ethics is built on six fundamental principles: equality, freedom, truth, respect, public service and social commitment and sustainability. It undertakes, inter alia, the following commitments: “To promote lifelong or lifelong training of other social groups demanding peace, justice and democratic coexistence and higher education, as well as the sustainable and fair development of Basque society, rejecting all forms of terrorism and violence.” None of them can be used to exclude a person with all the necessary steps for social reintegration. On the contrary, doing so also means contravening their rights and integrity. And what is worse, not only against that person, but also against Congress and all the people who have participated in it, leaving him unprotected in public opinion.
That is why we call on the UPV/EHU not to interpret and use the Code of Ethics in the strict sense, as the Rector says in access, not as a legal rule, but as a model to follow that, through the transmission of behaviors and values, helps us to interpret the current rules and shows us the way to develop future rules.
Steilas Trade Union